Crystal Jade with the girls

Dear All,

I haven't been updating the blog because i am busy with work and sourcing for advertising sources for the contest up lately. Anyway, this post is as usual long overdue. The last week of hols that i had was outing with the girls. We went makan and chit chat at bugis Crystal Jade.
My usual order is 酸辣拉面 (hot and sour spicy ramen). The best they had in the entire menu. You will be very puzzled as I didn't have any 小笼包. Its a long story. I actually had food poisoning once after visiting crystal jade steamboat buffet with free flow 小笼包 at holland V. From then on, its striked off from my list of edible foood.
Ramen was served in a rather non appetizing manner, with noodle unmixed with the soup, But they were good to put the corriander and stuff separately.


After mixing it looks much better. The soup was thick and nice. Just the right level sourness and spicyness. (if there's such a word) The noodles managed to soak up the goodness rich soup and was flavoured in a way that it becomes smooth to the throat and manage to slip into my mouth.
The ingredients added had a huge variety as well, there were mushrooms, prawns, black fungus, tofu, shoots, and eggs.


Just a final photo to end the day.

With a pinch of salt

I heard from some of the customers saying that this is the place where they shot the current 7pm show "my hand in yours". The pastry shop of the daughter. (YES! I saw it on tv today!) Many negative comments that i read from some of the famous forums and sites. So i decided to be the judge myself.
Interior looks good. With baby blue walls and some real sweet pictures hanging.

And the test began when we had no seats, there was no one greeting us at the door after 2minutes, we sat on the outside and no one gave us the menu after 5 minutes. I was cool with it, i took the menu myself and shifted to the inside seats upon seeing people leaving. Not long before we made up our minds and decided what to order. I manage to get the attention of the waitress only after 10 attempts. It was obvious they were understaffed. 2 waitress for a full house. The lady boss, open your eyes please. The waitresses are so busy they forgot that they told me to hold on and simply went to attend to other customers. Food ordering made me lose my patience already. But it was redeemed when we had a game of Uno.

Simply add on $3.50 to upgrade your main to a meal. Its inclusive of Either a soup or salad, plus desert for the day. We all had it. Salad was normal, fresh greens with thousand island. Nothing should go wrong.

Soup was okay, just normal. Not too thick not too watery. But we can't really tell what was the soup.

Prices of mains ranges from 9.90 to approx 14.90 for the expensive ones.

My main: Sissy Crab Linguinie.

It was bad. Pasta was tough, sauce was like tomato sauce and crab wasn't crispy at all. I like soft shell crabs but definitely not this.

Mr Lee's main: Aglio Olio.

Same thing, Pasta too hard. Not much ingredients. Nothing special...



Had other mains like baked rice which was slighly better and carbonara which was yucky as well. But the reason i chose this place to dine in was definitely the desert. My favourite creme caramel.
Soft yet tender. Creamy yet smooth. Tinge of sweetness lingers in your mouth even after you swallow. The burnt caramel was fragrant and melted right in my mouth. Slightly cold to intrigue your senses. It was perfect.

Auntie note: Free parking at the back of the restaurant.

Do upgrade your meal for the desert as it is super worth it.

Water is served in a jug for you to refil it on your own so don't need to feel paiseh unless you can finish up the whole jug!

With A Pinch Of Salt

297 Tanjong Katong Road
Tel: +65 6348 2297
Opening hours
Daily11am – 11pm

Outing with the girls

Was out with the girls for lunch date. So decided to bring them to my lovely hidden find in town.

The pasta served here is superb. Even though this small eatery don't look posh they serve food with pride.

We had the set lunch that is $9.90nett inclusive of a soup, drink and a pasta main.

Soup of the day was cream of cauliflower. Can be slightly thicker but still it was good. smooth and not too salty. I had other better soups here though. Their home made garlic bread may look so-so but its flavour filled. The garlic and butter made it a perfect combi. The bread used was just normal bread so those with braces, good for us.


This was my main seafood marinara. It was a tough choice between this and vongole arrabiata. I think i prefer arrabiata(spicy tomato) but i prefer seafood to just clams alone!

Pasta today was slightly hard, had some problems with chewing recently. Sauce was thick and rich, had some onion pieces in it.

This is how much liao there is in my pasta.

2 prawns, 2 small scallop, 1 mussel, abt 5 sotong, and some loose piece of salmon here and there.


Mel had this, italian sausage fusilli. Same sauce as mine so i didn't try.

Hui's order, chicken meatballs. there were about 6 meat balls.

We all chose tea as our drink. Nice brew of english breakfast over some gossips and chat. Love catching up.

Auntie note: No service charge, no GST. Can ask for refills for tea bags. Order the diet coke and be served a can rather than other drinks only in a cup.

Creation Cafe

100 Beach Road#01-43 Shaw Leisure Gallery

Mon–Thu12noon – 2.30pm, 6pm – 9pm Fri12noon – 2.30pm, 6pm – 9.30pm Sat1pm – 3pm, 6pm – 9.30pm (Closed on Sundays

Kuishinbo

My treat, because i was in a good mood and felt that a full stomach will be comfortable.


And the best place to satisfy the never ending appetite will be to fill it up with snow crabs. Where the hell to get them in Singapore? I think Isetan sells frozen ones. But why go thru the hassle when you can get them at KUISHINBO at half the price?????








Snow crabs wait first because i have to eat some sashimi as appetizer.


Sashimi will always be the first on the list in any buffet because if you have it with a full stomach you no longer can taste the light, fresh and fishyness of the sashimi. Kuishinbo has a variety of fresh sashimi that is cut right in front of you. The fish was tender yet still QQ, look at the picture and you can see the gloss over the fish. They not only have salmon, but also maguro and hamachi. Plus some fresh scallops, and also cold prawns( sorry no pics). All these tasted sweet and as thou right from the ocean.





The exciting part comes. Snow crab the length of your chop sticks. Eat with scissors and cut it right open. Pulling out the flesh in one whole chunk and popping it right into your mouth. Luxury? yes, it sure is.


The snow crabs melts in your mouth, with the texture of a sharkfins but in a solid piece. The sweetness of seafood jus ooze out when you bite thru it. Plus the crab meat is juicy and smooth.


Kuishinbo surprises their customers and continued with their tradition of the hourly special to make you remain alert thru out the meal. Hourly specials are for the first 20 on first come first serve basis. The specials are not dishes you find in the buffet spread.





The auntie spirit motivated me to get 3 out of 4 hourly specials. The first and third is lobster with garlic and white wine sauce. Lobster was very meaty, sweet and fresh, very bouncy, plus the garlic brought out the taste with the help of italian spices. Lobster was crunchy with juice spurting out every mouth you bite thru it.








2nd was this. Frozen strawberry with white chocolate. Yummy. This particular desert is sold in mos burger, quite exp k.... the icy frozen strawberry gives you a brain freeze. Sour on the outside, sweet on the inside.

i am moving on to the cakes section now. My fav part of the buffet is always on the cakes. however, kuishinbo's emphasis is more on seafood and not on pastries!

Cakes clockwise:

Mango cake: taste ok, mango taste not artificial but seems like too much gelatine, the cake's density was more like jelly.

Pistacio cake: very fragrant. Had a little after taste of macha.

Oreo cheesecake: very salty, covered the sweetness of the cake. Saved by the mini oreo on top.

Blackforest cake: very disappointing. The base or rather the whole cake was dry and rough. Not a little bit of moisture in the cake. I had a bite and left the rest.

Overly dense strawberry cake: the whole cake was like a piece of solid with little taste. You need like 3 mouths to tell u that you give up trying to guess what flavour it is.

Tiramisu: Taste like chocolate cake.

Blueberry cake: Good. not too sweet, the topping on top is like blueberry jam.

Newyork cheese cake: Not too salty unlike the oreo cheese cake. The cake was not very dense so you can finish it up easily.

The rest of them here:

The black cup: its choco shavings, with mint in the 2nd tier and choco syrup as the base. Best desert. The mint was refreshing and a perfect combi with the choco shavings. Sweet yet not over powering.

Danish with blueberry jam: pastry is not crispy but quite xiang.

Strawberry cake again: the base is actually some nuts. but not cruchy. so wads the point?

Fruit tart: the filling is custard. But again too much gelatine. The fruit on top too small to make any difference to the taste.

Strawberry cup: another thumbs up. Rich and creamy milky substance over strawberry essence. The cream and strawberry on top also makes the desert attractive and oh-so-love-it.

Alright, back to food. This is pipping hot soup. Tts actually some japanese soup with chicken meat balls. I took it cos it resembles shark's fin. I have to say it does, they even add imitation shark's fin in it but the ginger taste was too over powering i gave up.

They are currently having a seafood feast special so they have more special stuff such as black pepper mud crab and steamed promfet. But so sorry, it ended the day i went.

I didn't eat the black pepper crab cos my braces can't really bite. But boy said it was good. He had 5 of the gong.

This is also another special item. its another kind of snow crab i think. The meat is slightly more salty but it was tender and juicy.

Yakitori. Sweet and soft. Well marinated and juicy. the yakitori sauce was good and it blends well with the chicken. The meat can be easily detached from the stick.

A whole plate of tempura, breaded prawn and soft shell crab.

Tempura was good, prawns were crunchy and well marinated. The batter used was fragrant and stuck well to the prawn not falling off when you bite. Plus tempura sauce was dispensed from a hot water flask so it was pipping hot.

Breaded prawn on the other hand lost the fight. Prawns were barely seen. Tiny and most probaby mashed up. The breaded batter was normal not very tasty.

Soft shell crab was not crispy, i had one cos the crab was a bit soft already.

Chawamushi, right from the steamer. Goodness smooth and the dashi stock used was perfect. The presentation is good and if you do notice, there is a hidden piece of hotate! Plus a prawn! that's like scoring 101 over 100!

The deep fried prawns were not crispy enough for you to chomp down the whole prawn. Nothing special with the batter.

The drumlets on the other hand was good. Comparable to mcwings. It was fragrant, only regret was that it wasn't served hot.

Auntie note for the day is:

Prices vary daily so you can check out their website for the pricing.

Tea bags selection is huge, i think perhaps 30 kinds to choose from. Drink to your fill.

3 Temasek Boulevard#03-002 Suntec City Tower 1

Tel: +65 6238 7088

Lunch11.30am – 3.00pm Dinner5.30pm – 10.00pm

Happy Birthday to Dear Mum

Mother's day and mummy's bday is always a few days apart. So we always celebrate the two important events together. By the way mummy of the 4 proud daughters. Luckily the cake got no candles. Hehe......
So, off to the northern side of Singapore we go to a vegetarian restaurant..... Greenland restaurant..... The place is air conditioned, it looks like the olden kind of 酒楼, with huge round tables and the table cloth on top. reminded me of bday celebrations i had when i was younger with my grandparents. those days were the best as kids were always treated like kings and queens by the elders.

First up is soup of the day

We have lotus roots and peanut soup. This soup is suppose to be good for the elderly as lotus roots are good for joints and peanuts are good for brain. Older people tend to experience strain in their knees especially, thus the soup can let them absorb the required nutrients. Peanuts on the other hand is to prevent dementia....

Mock glazed pork

The imitation pork was fragrant, chewy, bouncy and full of juice. meat is nicely done with a tinge of sweetness. they manage to fry the imitation meat to absorb the flavours of the sauce which can normally be absorbed by real meat if you simmer it long enough.

Mock Sweet and Sour Fish.
Anyone who has tasted mock fish will agree with me that the beauty of the fish lies with the many layers of beancurd skin being compacted together and the use of seaweed to wrap it up thus acting as the skin of the real fish. From young i like to eat mock fish as the texture is different from other imitation products. The sauce added blends well with the fish seeping in thru the folds and is soft to bite.

This is a big disappointment of the day.... tofu with special mushroom sauce. i guess the chef may have forgotten to add salt? because it was rather tasteless. even thou tofu was smooth it did not manage to save the dish.....

This is 菠菜 stir fry with mushroom. this is a common chinese new year dish because i don't know why..... vegetables are soft but not overcooked till it turns yellow, this retains the nutrition of the vegetable. the mushrooms are added to add a distinctive mushroom taste that only dried mushrooms offer.

this is a special dish that people who aren't vegetarians may not know. its 猴头菇. This is a species of mushroom and not some kind of monkey head as the name suggests. The mushroom is named after the monkey as it looks a bit hairy on the top.... this was stir fried with ginger and parsely with cashew nuts. i would say not the best way to deal with the dish. I have eaten once that mushroom was deep fried and stirred with sweet sour sauce, and it was heavenly.

auntie note: free parking is available at the temple abt 2 buildings away, i guess its a collaboration.

There is service charge :(

Rice is 80 cents a bowl. pickles at $3, towels at 40 cents, chinese tea at 1.30. i feel all these were overcharged.

For 8 adults, the total cost was $131.80 after taxes

Greenland Vegetarian Restaurant
791 Upper Serangoon Road

6282 8022